The Emo Girl

The unexpected possibility

Ash POV
We sat together while I dusted the note for fingerprints.
"There we go," I said, showing off the fingerprints. "Only the ones on the outside belong to the janitor. The rest belong to our kidnapper."
"Are you sure it's from the kidnapper?" Daniel asked. "It might be from another pawn."
"Daniel's right," said Penelope. "It might be from another pawn, just like Anthony."
"So what do we do now?" Bobby asked. "How do we find them?"
"I don't know," I said. "Let's try giving this to my mom or dad. They should know forensic scientists."
We sat around, still trying to figure out who could have done this.
"Oh the pizza's here," said Daniel, looking at his phone while getting up. "I'll go get it."
He went out and came back with the pizza.
"I also got us some cheesy meatballs," said Daniel. "And some drinks too."
"Thanks, Dan," said Bobby. "I was already getting hungry..."
"You're always hungry, Bob," said Linda. "Like I still remember how you used to steal my dessert when I wasn't looking..."
"Heh heh you noticed?" Bobby asked, sheepishly. "I only take a small bite off your dessert."
"A small bite as in half of it?" Linda asked, annoyed. "You must have a really big mouth for that big a. bite to seem small to you..."
"I have a question," said Penelope. "How many nicknames do you even have for him?"
"Plenty," said Linda. "You want me to list them down?"
"Lindie no!" Bobby said. "Please no!"
"Then stop stealing my dessert," said Linda. "If you steal it one more time, I'll expose your dirty secrets to your friends."
"What kinda secrets do you have huh, Bobby?" I asked teasingly. "What did you do?"
"Linds please," said Bobby. "Don't embarrass me like this. I'll do whatever you say, I'll even give you my dessert. Please!"
"Oh Rob..." said Linda. "I was only joking! Now why would I? But still if you steal my dessert, I'll tell mom that you hit me till I'm bleeding."
"You think she'll believe you?" Bobby asked smugly. "Like what evidence do you have?"
"Ketchup," said Linda. "I'll use ketchup as evidence."
"Are you actually serious?" Bobby asked. "Whatever. I won't steal your dessert okay? Like when was the last time I stole your dessert? It was literally YEARS ago!"
"Fine..." said Linda. "Yeah that's true too. Since I was gone for two years."
"Aww Lindsey," said Bobby. "Don't worry, we'll find that kidnapper and kick him!"
"Yeah that move you pulled on Anthony was epic!" Penelope said. "It looked like Christie's move!"
"Capoeira," said Linda. "I trained capoeira since I was eight."
"That's so cool!" I said. "What did Bobby do?"
"I took Krav Maga," said Bobby. "We used to spar, but then I was too young to spar with Linds so yeah... we didn't usually spar."
"And you didn't usually go for classes," said Linda. "Seriously, this lazy bum would stay home and play video games instead. Sometimes he chooses to study instead of practice."
"Well yeah I rather study," said Bobby. "I'm not really a martial arts kind of guy."
"Oh so Capoeira and Krav Maga are martial arts?" Daniel asked suddenly. "I thought it was a new language or something..."
"Well did you take any martial arts, Dan?" Penelope asked.
"Yeah sorta," said Daniel. "But only for like two years. I took Taekwondo."
"Well I trained in martial arts too," I said. "I trained in basic Judo."
"Well I'm kinda untrained..." Penelope said sheepishly. "Well, if I ever need to fight, I'll just use the moves of various Tekken characters. Some of their moves seem easy to copy, like that ground move every character has."
"Yeah and it's effective too," I said. "It can do lots of damage and you can attack your opponent when they're off guard. It works well especially if they're close to you."
"Yeah," said Penelope. "Playing fighting games actually kinda helps us learn about martial arts too."
"Please spare us the Tekken stuff," said Daniel. "We don't even know what Tekken is..."
"Well you don't know," said Linda. "But we do. We played it when we were kids. Right Rob?"
"Yep," said Bobby. "I miss that game..."
"See you're the only lost one, Daniel," said Linda. "We're on track."
We just sat around till my parents came home. Well, by then, everyone had already gone home...
"Hey mom," I said when we were having dinner. "Linda received another note. We were careful enough to not touch it with our bare hands. We managed to get some fingerprints after dusting it. Most of them belong to the sender of the letter."
"That's great," said mom. "We might be able to trace that guy."
"Yeah!" I said. "Hopefully we can find them."
"We might have their fingerprints in the database," said dad. "If they have a criminal record that is..."
After dinner, they checked out the fingerprints. They checked the database and found nothing.
"It's not in the database," said mom. "Whoever it is, it's someone new."
"Another dead end..." I said in dismay. "So I guess we have to find out the old fashion way huh..."
"Yep," said dad. "Have you gotten any leads?"
"Oh yeah that reminds me," I said. "Linda and Anthony told us some stuff."
I explained to them about the guy that looked like the incognito icon. They listened intently and nodded solemnly.
"So he might have something to do with the abductions," said mom. "Who could it be?"
"Wait I just thought of something," said dad. "Do you still have the drawing that Anthony made for you?"
"Yeah I do," I said. "I took it for the case file."
"You have a case file?" Mom asked, surprised. "That's great! Go bring it."
I went up to my room and brought it down. I showed them the drawing.
I showed them the drawing and they looked at each other.
"Do you know something?" Dad asked seriously. "He looks almost exactly like the guy that bought furniture from Daniel's father. The guy with the hat and trench coat!"
"What?" I said, shocked. "Do you think... it might be him?"
"It might," said mom with a shrug. "It might also mean that Daniel's father, Michael White, might have something to do with this."
"No way," I said. "So in the end it all connects..."
"It might not have anything to do with it," said dad. "It might just be a coincidence. Maybe he is the customer?"
"I don't know," I said. "I should find out about this myself. I don't think we should tell Daniel about this, just in case he's mixed up in this..."
"Yeah that's true," mom said. "We'll keep an eye on him too. The thing is, we don't know his real identity, nor what he actually looks like."
"Now that's hard," I said. "We need more info."